by Eli (aka Lucas)
“Bye,” Beth called back from the doorway she stood in. “Thanks again for letting me stay over. I hope you have a good night at Noise Tower.”
Dali waved from the couch, giving Beth a sleepy smile, a cup of coffee clutched in her other hand.
“Of course,” she called back, “have fun on the prowl. Don’t break too many hearts.”
“If I haven’t left a few dozen guys broken, have I even had a good night?” Beth teased.
The two laughed, said one more goodbye, and Beth walked out of the apartment.
It had been an over-day stay. The two had gone out for drinks the previous night, and with little time left before sunrise, Dali had offered her the guest room. Being the host of Noise Tower’s popular late-night radio show came with a good salary, and the ability to afford a second bedroom. Being her friend got you a cushy stay in that room. More than the perks that came from befriending a local celebrity, Beth truly enjoyed Dali’s company, and vise-versa.
She walked down the flight of stairs of the apartment, the wood creaking gently under her feet as she went. The elevator was out, had been for a week, so she was forced to take the winding stairs down. She’d begun mentally listing the places she’d visit that night, calculating cost over distance, who to drink, and how to get away with it– when she heard familiar voices. Her interest piqued, she stepped off the staircase and headed down the hall. A door was open, and from within she could hear the voices of two of her friends, Martin and Celeste, excitedly talking with one another. Normally not so nosey, she couldn’t help but to notice that they were currently in a room she wasn’t familiar with. She approached, looking at the door number, and recognized it as the new vampire she’d been introduced to not long ago.
This person was a recent addition to the brood; a vampire by the name of Lucas. He’d been brought in by Justin, which was a rare occasion. As far as she knew, people, including herself, mostly just fell into the friend group. But it was the first time Justin had taken any stake in claiming their small posse as a “brood”. There were strict vampiric laws in place about openly proclaiming broods, for the creatures of the night loved their bloodlines, clans, and other titles– kept immortal identities neat and tidy– but it was anybody’s guess if Justin was serious or just “sticking it to the man”, as he’d say. In either case, he’d personally invited this person in, and having heard some of the circumstances surrounding their meeting, she supposed it was the logical next step. After all, they’d taken in one frenzied vampire, what could one more hurt?
She looked in on the scene.
Inside, she could see Martin and Celeste, their attention turned to the window with their backs to her.
“I’m thinking it should be a nice red color,” said Martin, throwing a hand to the general window area, “something warm and sensual, you know? Give these white walls a bit of color.”
“But we have to make sure they’re black-out curtains,” nodded Celeste. “It doesn’t matter what color they are if they can’t block out the sun.”
“Yes, yes, yes– but we must make sure they’re homie, too.”
They carried on in this way, unaware of Beth’s gaze. She looked about the room for any sign of it’s true occupant. The place was empty, no pictures or posters to be seen. All that was there was a couch, and a single coffee table. No television, no carpets or rugs, and nothing to indicate anyone actually lived there. The place was otherwise bare. Strange, as she was sure someone had mentioned that he’d already been living there for a month.
She took a step in, rapping her knuckles on the door frame first to announce her presence. The two turned back, smiling upon seeing her enter.
“Beth!” smiled Celeste, “Good evening!”
“Evening,” she smiled in return, “Am I interrupting something?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
“No, nothing at all,” said Martin, shaking his head. “In fact, Celeste and I were just about to head out. That late-night thrift store is closing soon and we’ve got a few things to pick up.”
“Late night thrifting? Sounds like fun.”
“It will be,” nodded Celeste. “Wanna come?”
“I’ve got some plans for tonight,” she shrugged, gently shaking her head. She relished slightly in the way Celeste seemed disappointed by the news, but continued on as if she didn’t notice. “Is– what is his name– Lucas? Going with you?”
“Oh no, Martin and I told him he didn’t have to worry, that we’d take care of everything.”
“Oh. Is he busy?”
“Not that I know of,” she shrugged, before looking over to a corner of the room. “You’re not busy, are you?” she asked.
Surprised, Beth followed her gaze and noticed the new vamp stood leaned against the back wall. Despite being inside, his sunglasses were on, blocking out his eyes, but not the slight scowl he wore. His brows were knitted together with worry and his arms folded. His posture was rigid and stiff, a frown on his face.
“Can’t say I am…” he could just be heard to mutter, a slight accent to his words. Must be from the east coast.
“Ah…” was all she could think to say seeing him in this clearly uncomfortable state.
“Well we better head out,” said Martin. “Come on Celeste.”
“I’m really hoping they still have that curtain rod I saw– the one with the bat wings on the ends?” she said as she followed him out the door. “Don’t you think that’s a little on the nose?”
Their voices faded as they headed down the hall, and Beth couldn’t help but to smile after them. This seemed a familiar scenario, and she recalled when the two had done the same for her when she’d first moved in. She turned back to the resident of said apartment. Lucas was stood still, like a statue, and she couldn’t help but to approach him.
“Well, aren’t you even going to say hi to me?” she asked. He looked up from the floor then, eyebrows raised behind his circular purple frames.
“H-huh? Oh, sorry, didn’t see you there.”
She stared at him a moment, doubting his words, her lower lip slightly pouted out.
“What, I didn’t,” he shrugged.
Gently, she reached out, lifting his glasses. He was surprised by the action, his brown eyes wide as he watched her with some alarm, but didn’t move to stop her. Her own piercing blue eyes studied him. His eyes bore deep bags under them. Vampires all had bags under their eyes, but the deeper they were, the more obvious it was that they weren’t sleeping or eating properly. He was studying her back, as if trying to read her intention.
After another moment, she simply removed his glasses all together. “Just as I thought,” she said, folding the frames, “you need coffee.”
“…huh?”
“Come with me,” she said, and led him to his own kitchen. He shoved his hands in his pockets and followed her.
The kitchen was as bare as the living room. But there was a table with two chairs, both mismatched. This told her that perhaps these had come off the street. Maybe Martin had dragged them in. She began to search the cabinets, but found nothing.
“Ah, I aint got nothin’ in there,” said Lucas. “I mean, we don’t eat right, so what’s the point?”
“Yes, but you can have some coffee at least. You haven’t even bought any tea?”
“Tea? What do I look like, some kinda grandma?”
She tsked at this, closing the cabinets before taking off her big red coat. “Sit here and don’t move. I’ll be right back,” she said, and hung her coat over a chair. She’d left before he could argue.
She returned with Dali’s coffee pot and two ceramic mugs from her apartment. The late night radio host had given her permission, on the condition that she return it.
Before long the sound of coffee percolating filled the otherwise empty apartment. Lucas watched the coffee pot with some trepidation, like it were a spider he had to keep an eye on. Beth silently observed his behavior a moment, before letting out a short breath.
“You know what a coffee maker is, don’t you?”
“Of course I do,” he responded, quietly, glancing back at her before returning his gaze.
“Then why are you staring at it like that?”
“Like what?”
“Like it’s gonna bite your head off.”
He tore his gaze away, as if he’d been scolded. “Sorry, I just… I haven’t had coffee in a while.”
“Do you not like it?”
“I don’t notlike it, it just reminds me of something, that’s all.”
He seemed to avoid her gaze, and if she were being honest the act was wearing on her. Still, she leaned back in her chair and folded her arms.
“You’ve got a real interesting way of treating people who are trying to help you.”
He snapped to attention, his eyebrows raised in surprise.
“I mean,” she continued, “pouting in the corner while Celeste and Martin chose your decor, glaring at inanimate objects? It’s just not how I usually show my appreciation.”
He frowned at her.
“It’s because it’s so new, isn’t it?”
“What is? Being a vamp?”
“Receiving help,” she responded, simply brushing a lock of red hair off her shoulder. “You strike me as the type to think they can make it on their own, or that, receiving help is troublesome.”
“I-I don’t think that,”
“Sure you don’t. Which is why you were so readily giving your opinions about how you want this place to look. Why it’s filled to the brim with all your things.”
He stared back at her, a mixture of stunned insult present on his face but could not think to respond.
“A place like this, as bare as it is after a month of living here, I bet you think this is acceptable. That it’s enough to get by and you don’t need anything else.”
“What’s with you?” he asked, “you just walk into people’s places and force your opinion on them like you own the place?”
“Am I wrong?” she asked, lifting an eyebrow in challenge.
“Dead wrong.”
“Oh really? What’s the real reason then? Because this place looks like a den for someone planning to drop everything and run at any second.”
“I– you– knock it off!” he demanded, his palm slapping the surface of the kitchen table. “You readin’ my mind or something?”
She gave him a leveled stare that demanded he not raise his voice again, and he responded by easing off. Something about the way her piercing blue eyes stared into him was familiar. He knew those eyes, the eyes of a person who experienced a hard life, who would not be intimidated by a raised voice.
“Is it easier?” she asked, suddenly, “is it really easier to push your new friends away, rather than accept their help? Because from where I’m sitting, you could use all the help you can get if you want to survive out here.”
“I’ve been on my own before,” he muttered.
“Not like this. Not with the beast inside you.”
The confused look on his face pulled from her a tiered sigh, one she hadn’t quite meant to reveal but seemed drawn out of her like a reflex.
“Whoever sired you never stuck around to explain anything to you, did they?”
He didn’t respond, but she noticed the way his gaze flicked between her and the ground, as if deciding to keep something to himself. He had a miserable poker face.
“The beast? The curse? We’re cursed you know.”
“Yeah, yeah, dead people brought back to life and forced to feed on human blood–”
“We’re not the ones the blood is sating,” she cut in. “It’s the curse that demands the blood. It can be managed, and we’re allowed to retain our identities if it’s obeyed. But if we starve ourselves, if we cannot sate it, we lose ourselves to the hunger. The curse takes over, and we try to consume whoever is closest. Sometimes one feeding isn’t enough, and the frenzy can even take over our minds, lasting nights, weeks, and in the worst cases, the rest of our existence. For the more we kill, the more we throw away our humanity– our sanity. We live in constant danger of losing ourselves.”
He stared at her in quiet horror.
“I heard that wehn Justin found you, you were near-frenzied. Just on the edge, even willing to commit that most offensive crime in vampiric society. To drain another vampire.”
“I…I didn’t mean… I couldn’t tell what he was.”
“You were probably too hungry to register a difference. It doesn’t matter, because whether you’d realized it or not you did nearly lose yourself. An irresponsible act that would have resulted in the death of a dear friend, and a major problem on your hands. Namely me.”
The threat hung in the air, and he merely sat in it, watching her with some apprehension.
“But,” she said, drawing her gaze away from him and to the window, “luckily that’s not the case. Lucky for you, Justin got away. You managed to feed properly, and he, for whatever reason, brought you in. Now you have a brood, a people who will look out for you, who will keep you from being frenzied ever again, to the best of their abilities. And, should you choose to accept their help.”
He turned his head, unable to meet her gaze.
Beth stood and left him to his thoughts as she poured them both a cup of coffee. No cream, no sugar, she left the bitter drink in front of him, which he reached out and clutched with a quiet “thank you.”
She nodded in response, before sitting back down with her own before her.
She left him to his thoughts as she gazed out the window.
Lucas’s hands clutched the warm ceramic cup, his eyes pointed at the brown contents within. His mind was blank as emotions swirled inside of him, each one like drowning rats trying to be the first to reach the surface first before being ultimately stomped down.
Within this haze he panicked that Beth might grow impatient by his lack of response. He feared that at any moment she’d simply give up and leave. He wondered if maybe that would be better, that she were wasting her time on him. He felt panic bubble up in his throat, accompanied by the acrid taste of the acidic coffee.
As the second dragged on to minutes, however, as he struggled to form his thoughts, he found that she remained, her gaze turned outside to the night sky, until finally she broke the silence.
“It’s terrifying, isn’t it?” she asked, and he raised his gaze in surprise. “Letting people help you?”
He found he had no words to respond, a strange mix of shame stealing his tongue and pinching his cheeks.
“Why do you think that is?” she asked, her gaze pointing to her own black cup of coffee.
He had no answer.
“For my part,” she continued, “I’ve found that people’s kindness can be overbearing. Almost like trying to stare into the sun. It can be too warm, too bright, too… much.”
She drew in a breath, releasing it slowly as she drew her gaze up to him. “It almost makes me want to run and hide.”
This statement shocked him. This person did not seem the type to run, though he did not know her very well. To have her seated here, talking of running away from something like affection, or aid, he didn’t know what to make of it.
“…who are you?” he asked, quietly. The question pulled slightly at her lips, just enough to form the ghost of a smile.
“Don’t worry about who I am. Not for now. I’m more curious to know what you’ll do next. If you’ll take anything I said seriously, or if I’ll watch someone self-destruct. Could be interesting either way.”
He made a face at her, a recoiling expression that pulled from her a soft laugh.
“Eternity is a long time,” she shrugged, “you find entertainment where you can.”
Before he could respond, they could hear the voices of Celeste and Martin growing steadily louder from the hall. Lucas turned and stood up, wandering into the living room where he greeted them as they reentered. He’d not closed the door, and thus they walked in with smiling faces, but not curtains.
“Ah, sorry Lucas,” greeted Martin, “seems like we were too late. The curtains I spotted earlier already got bought up.”
“But we didn’t leave empty handed!” announced Celeste. She held up a bag, offering it to Lucas with a proud look on her face.
“It’s not much,” sighed Martin.
“But it was cheap, and we thought you might like something in your kitchen.”
With a questioning look, Lucas took the bag and opened it. Wordlessly he reached in and took out the coffee maker. It was black, with a few scratches on it. The glass coffee pot that was currently taped to it so it wouldn’t fall out in transport was stained and would need a good wash, but the device looked otherwise usable.
“I…hope you like it,” Celeste offered in the silence.
“If not we could always–” started Martin, but his words were cut off by Lucas who shook his head.
“No, this is… this is great. Thank you.”
“Are you sure?” asked Martin, “because we could always return it if it’s too dirty.”
“No, really,” he said, finally lifting his gaze. “This is perfect. I mean it.”
“It’s just a used coffee maker,” replied Celeste, her brow quirked up in a teasing manner.
“Yeah– well… it’s great. I mean, I haven’t really bought anything for the place anyway, so– oh, how much do I owe you?”
“Are you kidding?” asked Celeste.
“Honestly, don’t worry about it,” shrugged Martin. “It’s just a coffee pot. It was, like, three dollars.”
Celete’s attention was pulled past Lucas, and to where Beth stood leaned against the door frame.
“Beth? Oh, I thought you had a thing tonight.”
“I do, but I wanted to properly meet the new guy,” she said, drawing closer. “But now I should really get going. Places to go, people to eat.”
“Thanks for hangin’ around,” nodded Lucas.
“Sure,” was all she offered, still walking away.
She headed out the hall, listening to the voices of them grow distant as she went.